Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers
CARLSBAD, Calif.— When PJ Haarsma wrote his first book, a science fiction novel for preteenagers, he didn't think just about how to describe Orbis, the planetary system where the story takes place. He also thought about how it should look and feel in a video game.
Context & Ripple Effects
PJ Haarsma's decision to design a video game alongside his preteen sci-fi novel set in Orbis fits a pattern already visible in mid-2000s coverage: James Cameron was thinking in game terms for his film projects as early as 2006, and startups were betting on movie-based videogames as a risky but real niche the following year. What Haarsma adds is a reversal of direction — instead of games adapting existing screen properties, a book is being built with a game as its marketing engine.
First-order effects
- Haarsma's young readers get an interactive entry point into Orbis before or alongside the book itself, making the game a discovery funnel rather than a licensed afterthought.
- The publisher gains a second product and a richer pitch to retailers and librarians: a franchise spanning print and play aimed at reluctant preteen readers.
Second-order effects
- Other children's and YA authors face pressure to bundle interactive companions with launches, shifting expectations for what a debut novel package includes.
- Game studios and tools vendors gain a new customer segment — authors and small publishers commissioning modest tie-in games — echoing the adaptation economics explored in movie-based game ventures.
Third-order effects
- If story-first games keep proving they can carry fiction on their own terms — as later coverage of immersive game writing overtaking books for some readers suggests — the line between 'book with a game' and 'game that is the book' blurs, and authorship becomes inherently multi-format.
- Accessible creation tools point the same way: just as Twine lowered the barrier for text-based game authorship, transmedia storytelling may become something individual writers do by default rather than studios license.
The trend: This is an early data point in the convergence of publishing and games, where narrative IP is designed across formats from day one and games shift from promotional add-on to primary storytelling medium.